Rome was in Shakespeare’s mind long before he wrote Julius Caesar. Titus Andronicus—most probably a collaborative work—was among his earliest plays, but is more of a historical fantasia, complete with horror-movie effects, and is understandably set aside by Paul Cantor in his latest book, Shakespeare’s Roman Trilogy.1 Elsewhere, the first history tetralogy has numerous references to classical Rome, including, in Richard III, the legend that Julius Caesar built the Tower of London, while Henry V presents its hero-king returning in triumph from Agincourt as another Caesar. Yet he is also, as he insistently reminds us, a Christian king. Paul Cantor’s project involves an exploration of possible tensions between those twin images of classical and Christian regimes.

Cantor’s engagement with these plays began in 1976 with his book Shakespeare’s Rome: Republic and Empire, and has been pursued in numerous essays as well as an absorbing and entertaining course of Harvard lectures on “Shakespeare and Politics” which can be viewed on YouTube. (His interview with Bill Kristol about the new book is also recommended.) Recent scholarship has widened the category of “Roman plays” to include Titus and even Cymbeline, and has also considered the narrative poem “The Rape of Lucrece,” which imagines the outrage that finally discredited the Roman monarchy (the rape is committed by the son of Tarquinius Superbus), but Cantor sticks with the traditional grouping of Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra. As his title indicates, he regards